Izento's CA18DET Build Thread

[Izento]

[float_6969]

Nice! Let us know how it's driving after the alignment.

[Izento]

Just some small news. I've been kicking around the idea of doing meth. Probably gonna ruin my life and become homeless but I'll go faster...Hahaha.

No but for real, I've been researching water/meth injection and it seems like the best bang for your buck without E85. E85 requires new pump, lines, injectors, flex sensor if you want to be safe (flex will read your E85 batch and ethanol percentage because E85 seems to vary widly from batch to batch and gas stations), and new ECU to take advantage of all of this to adjust map.

I've been eyeing the AEM meth kit and it looks like the easiest but comprehensive kit out there. Progressive spray and even a boost cut, so that if the sprayer clogs, you run out of meth, there's a kink or break in the line, the boost controller will have power cut and you'll run on stock wastegate pressure. So as long as your tune isn't super aggressive in timing and it's more towards increased boost, you won't end up damaging the engine if your meth system malfunctions. Also looks like AEM sell a filter as well for extra insurance, along with a filter in the actual nozzle as well.

Now of course I'm not going to do this anytime soon, but I think this would certainly help with the hot weather of California. Maybe when I do the hybrid turbo I'll combo this and get some meth in there and try to get 24 psi or something because it'll cool down the intake manifold charge. Meth kits seem to have come a long way and everyone is scared of running out or a clogged nozzle, but the safety feature sounds really robust. Just some food for thought, as I've never heard of a CA18 run meth. I'll ruminate on this for a bit, but definitely a next year upgrade if anything.

[Izento]

Probably a good time to count the stock of all the things I've done. Kind of annoying to remember all the mods I've done to my car, so here's an updated list on all the things I've done.

1989 s13 240sx USDM 10 years+ Build

Engine:
CA18DET Swap
Tomei 256/256 Poncams
Supertech 83.5mm Pistons (0.5mm Overbore)
OEM Gasket refresh
Camfered Rod Journals
ARP Rod Bolts
GT2871R 48Trim 0.64 A/R
Tomei SR20 Turbo Outlet
ISIS SR20 3" Downpipe
Catco 3" Catco Catalytic Converter
ISIS 3" MBSE Catback Exhaust
R8 Coilpacks
Saikou Michi Dual Catch Cans
Canton Racing Oil Filter
HKS SSQV BOV

Fueling/Air:
Nismo Fuel Pressure Regulator
740cc Daestchwerks Injectors
Godspeed FMIC
Z32 MAF
TRE 255 lph Fuel Pump
3" Aluminum Intake Piping w/ K&N Intake

Drivetrain:
ACT 6 Puck Clutch (330 ft lb)
KAAZ 2 Way LSD
ISIS Steel Braided Clutch Line
Brass Shifter Bushing

Suspension:
Megan Racing Street Coilovers 8k/6k
ST Sway Bars w/ Poly Bushings
SPL Tension Rods
Tein Inner/Outer Tie Rods w/ Spacers
GK Tech Roll Center Correction Kit V1
SPL Slip-on Subframe Spacers
Megan Racing Rear Strut Bar

Electronics:
Apexi Power FC S14 Zenki Rewired
Apexi Power FC OLED Commander
FC Hako
Custom Apexi Power FC PS2 Connector
Apexi AVCR Boost Controller
Glowshift Oil Pressure, Boost, Fuel
AEM UEGO AFR
Moroso Battery Box relocated to rear
Odyssey PC925 AGM Battery

Brakes:
J30 Dual Piston Front Calipers
Stoptech Slotted Front Cryo Rotors
HPS Hawk Pads

Tires/Rims:
DR31 17x7 4x113.3
215/50/17 Federal RS-RR Front
215 Junkyard Rears

Interior:
S14 Tiger Stripe Seats

[dash]

DSMs cut their teeth, adopting most practices from the Buicks
Scan tool, knock-sensor tuning, O2 volts, upgraded stock turbos, etc.. Toluene spiked fuel on kill
Their water/alky or meth inj was nothing elaborate. Cars were fast & reliable, way back then - Pre: wideband & dyno
Took years for the DSM crew to discover the magic of the automatic transmission
After that, pound for pound/mod for mod.... I think they got faster than the Buicks

[Izento]

DSMs cut their teeth, adopting most practices from the Buicks
Scan tool, knock-sensor tuning, O2 volts, upgraded stock turbos, etc.. Toluene spiked fuel on kill
Their water/alky or meth inj was nothing elaborate. Cars were fast & reliable, way back then - Pre: wideband & dyno
Took years for the DSM crew to discover the magic of the automatic transmission
After that, pound for pound/mod for mod.... I think they got faster than the Buicks

Yeah it actually seems like a lot of the USDM guys got into DSMs, or maybe it was their sons. You can see a ton of similarities in how they made their setups with old techniques and wisdom while using newer tech like turbos, EFI tuning, boost controllers and such.

Took years for the DSM crew to discover the magic of the automatic transmission

Holy s*** this is so true. I never even thought of that, hahaha.

[Izento]

++ Parts

Engine
Restricted oil fitting to head
ISIS Silicone Radiator Hoses
DIF Ca18 Turbo Braided Steel Lines

Exterior
180sx rear garnish
S13 OEM Zenki Pignose Lip

Interior
Momo Race Leather Steering Wheel
NRG Hub

+++
Multiple Security Features

[float_6969]

I'm a big proponent of E85 for street cars, but if it's not available, water/meth is the next best thing. It doesn't take much on pump gas to run into knock-limited ignition tuning. Water/meth fixes that and allows for an optimal tune.

[Izento]

So I went for another test run. Everything seems to be working well. I checked all the joints/nuts and they are past fingertight at least, so nothing has come loose.

I'm rubbing in the front left forward fender, probably due to too much camber, but regardless, I think I might just hammer the inside of my fenders. I know this is sacrilege nowadays considering the cost of 240s, but get your own 240 if you don't like it! Anyways, next post will be JCCS and alignment.

[VStar650CL]

I think I might just hammer the inside of my fenders. I know this is sacrilege nowadays considering the cost of 240s, but get your own 240 if you don't like it!

[Izento]

Jk jk. So I've reset the camber. Previously it was probably at -9 or so, not gonna lie. The GKTeck RCCK shifted my camber very hard into the negative. This is my camber alignment after adjustment

Here it is after I adjusted the camber plate. I realized after this that there's a fine line between nice camber and f*** boi camber. With that said, I also dialed in the toe, because the steering wheel was too much to the right, so I pulled the driver side more and slightly moved the passenger side toe more. Hopefully that corrects the car a bit until the alignment. I'll get more of a barometer once I drive the car, which will actually be to JCCS in Long Beach. I'm also going to the Greddy Anniversary event, so that should be pretty cool too. I'll post some pics from both events. I know I don't post glamor pics of my car often here because she's not a beauty queen, but I'll try to take some pics of her this weekend. I'll also report back on the tire rub. If anything, I'll raise the car 0.5 inches as the car is definitely lower now because of the RCCK. I have no plans to hammer the car unless the raising of the coilovers doesn't work past 0.5-0.75 inches.

P.S. sorry for the s*** pics.

P.S.S Btw, I tried Mother's R3 Racing Rubber Remover spray because my car had been running rich and sprayed carbon on the rear bumper. That stuff works like a charm! Highly recommend.

[Izento]

Went to check out the Japanese Classic Car Show (JCCS) in Long Beach. WOW. There was so many high level cars at this show. Even the Hondas looked good (lol). One cool thing was the 240z community. Tons of RB swaps in there. Also there was a lot of GTR representation there. Funnily enough, I didn't see a single CA18. I might have to register for one of these cars shows one day.

Here's an interesting find. A R32 with a U.P. Garage refresh from Washington State. Very surprised to find this from my home state, and the place that I originally bought my CA18.

I think this is a Nissan Sunny?? With a VVL swap. I dunno, I'm an idiot but thought it was super unique and cool.

Classic Hako with ITBs.

Super rare! A Supra with a HKS T51R. I want to get a T51R mod to a turbo one day. I hear they sound like a jet engine.

I also went to the Greddy anniversary event! So many cool cars there.

The blue full carbon fiber SS Active R32 GTR (zoom in and you can see the carbon)

For some reason there was an Intec Racing sticker on there, which is a shop in Washington State and they're mostly known for Honda's. Interesting.

Looks like an HKS demo car showed up?

As promised, a pic of my bucket!

So, I've had one chuki fender and one zenki fender for the longest time. With that said, I've bought chuki fender extensions!

Picked up some headlight covers as well. So now I'll just sand these and I already have some spray paint that is factory matched, so I'll get everything blocked and then we'll put these on. Not sure how it's going to look with a pignose combination, but better than having those plastic clips on the passenger side.

Additionally, removing some camber from my wheels helped, but the car still rubs when turning right, so I need to raise the car 0.5 inches. Not a big deal, I just hope the coilover collars aren't seized (which is very common). Overall the car drove well to both events, but it drove s*** for the last 5 minutes from the Greddy event. Come to find out, it was the MAF wires. The car was running 10.0 AFR the whole time, I shifted those wires and it immediately shifted to 14.0 at idle. Regardless, I'm getting the car rewired for an R35 MAF anyways. This is definitely a fault in the MAF plug and not the Z32 MAF, so not worried about that.

So next plans are to raise the car and then repaint these parts, maybe even do the front bumper and lip at the same time, and then to save up for this tune! More to come.

[Izento]

Oh also, I hate that I have a wiper in the middle of the glass like a ricer, but legit my windshield arm cant reach the driver side. So I have to do the hashiriya arm in the middle of the windshield. Don't hate the player.

[float_6969]

Looks to me like you need a set of adjustable T/C rods if you don't them already. That wheel just needs pushed back a bit. Then you could readjust your caster from the coilover top hot like normal. No fender bashing necessary.

I've never been to JCCS, but always wanted to go. It looks awesome!

[dash]

those classics are like a candy store to a gearhead. Fun stuff
CA18 prolly mostly blown up by now(wanna-be-drifters). Relatively rare stateside to begin with. And old
At least you know where the RB motors went

My favourite nissan motor is the SOHC VG30ET of the gen 1 300z. They get no love. 3.0/3.3s were plentiful/cheap
Smooth, compact, hella tuff & sweet sound with the right muffler. Didn't take much to scare you in a street car

[Izento]

those classics are like a candy store to a gearhead. Fun stuff
CA18 prolly mostly blown up by now(wanna-be-drifters). Relatively rare stateside to begin with. And old
At least you know where the RB motors went

Amen to that. Not many CA18s on the road anymore.

Also, if you guys didn't notice, there's a Nico club sticker on my rear quarter windows! Gotta represent.

Looks to me like you need a set of adjustable T/C rods if you don't them already. That wheel just needs pushed back a bit. Then you could readjust your caster from the coilover top hot like normal. No fender bashing necessary.

I was actually considering that too. I do have adjustable tension rods, so I should be able to move the caster, but I didn't want to misalign my stuff more than it already is. If worst case, I raise the car 0.5 inches and it's still rubbing, I'll just tell the alignment shop to adjust caster to compensate for both wheel wells. The car needs to come up more anyways because I can barely fit a racing jack under it. I never intended for the car to be this low, I'm not about that tire tuck slammed look. The car rides like s*** at this height, lol.

[float_6969]

Yeah, it definitely needs an alignment anyway. Maybe get the ride-height set and then take it in?

You might also look to see if there are any race shops locally. I know I've struggled with alignments with normal shops because their info says the vehicle doesn't have a camber or caster adjustment in the front.

[Izento]

Yeah, it definitely needs an alignment anyway. Maybe get the ride-height set and then take it in?

You might also look to see if there are any race shops locally. I know I've struggled with alignments with normal shops because their info says the vehicle doesn't have a camber or caster adjustment in the front.

For sure, yeah I already gave Evasive Motorsports a call. That's the shop that has the crazy S2k time attack car and their shop driver is Dai Yoshihara. They know a thing or two about suspension to say the least!

[float_6969]

Awesome! I wish I had something like that here. We do have one race shop locally, but he's an SCCA guy. He's FANTASTIC at building race cars for that type of racing, but for something as simple as an alignment, he usually has too many big projects on the burner to want to take it on.

[Izento]

So another update. I noticed that most build threads (or even Youtube videos for that matter) don't talk about tools. I've always hated that, because when I first started working on cars I would often get into a project and find that I didn't have the proper tools to execute the job, primarily because I didn't have the money for proper tools, so I was building up my tool box as I went. Then I made a good investment in a nice carrying tool box, deep metric sockets, short metric sockets, 1/4, 3/8, 1/2 ratchets, metric set of wrenches, metric allen key set, and like 6 extensions. I think that all ran me like $300 back in the day (and it all got stolen, so I had to buy them twice!). I still don't have a lot of tools, and actually just bought a nice set of Gearwrench ratchets to replace my Chinese Craftsman ratchets, and if you've never felt nice ratchets, just look up ratchet teeth count.

Anyways, there's not enough info on special tools in car build threads, so let's change that.

I picked up a rivnut gun!!!

So keep in mind, this is different from a rivET gun. Rivets are somewhat permanent mounting solutions, often found on overfenders. This is a nut gun (hehehe) that allows you to mount a nut onto sheet metal. I got this for about $40. It comes with multiple rivnuts in metric and SAE. I'll be using this to fix my battery relocation. One thing that always massively annoyed me was that whenever I want to remove my battery, I had to mess with these long bolts that I fit thread-side up into my trunk and put a nut on top. They never really felt that secure.

Here is with the rivnut insert placed onto the rivnut gun. I chose a 1/4in size and got some 1/4in long bolts.

Here are the holes in the trunk. Granted, you'll also need a cordless drill so that you can drill into your trunk. The metal is pretty thin. MAKE SURE YOU DON'T HIT YOUR GAS TANK.. If in doubt, get a drill stopper (on Amazon or wherever, look it up) and this will prevent your drill from going too far as you punch through the sheet metal.

I cleaned them up of rust and sprayed AH3 rattle can I still had lying around from years ago. Color still matches really well! Also kind of ironic I'm cleaning up rust next to other rusty patches, lol. As you can see, I've already placed a rivnut in one of the holes. Now granted, the holes are slightly bigger than I'd like them to be to fit this rivnut in there, but it still grabs on and barely has wiggle.

Install the battery box in the same place. Tightened back up with 1/4th bolts on top and a washer, because these bolts are smaller than what I had in there previously.

Now I'll be doing the same thing for my catch cans, or at least the exhaust side. It's currently mounted too close to the exhaust manifold and knocking slightly during initial acceleration. I'd rather not have a can of oil too close to the exhaust manifold, so I'll be moving it closer to the front and on the shock tower near the power steering reservoir. I'm also going to use it to mount my fire extinguisher. I've never had it mounted and that's probably a stupid idea if I ever get into a wreck. I would have mounted it to a roll bar, but haven't got to that stage, and frankly, might never even get there given the condition of my chassis unless I do rust repair first.

Anyways, fun little tool that I thought I would share. These things are great for areas where you can't reach the back side of the bolt to add a nut onto. They have decent enough torque, but I wouldn't recommend it for something that needs over 30-40 ft lb of torque. There's only so much sheet metal the rivnut pinches onto, so you'll eventually spin the nut if you apply too much torque. Great tool that I think I'll be using for many different areas and honestly just a nice thing to learn about for me through this car modifying journey.

[Izento]

I've decided to sell all my stock parts because there's basically no going back at this point. My CA18 is too modified to ever truly get back to a decent stock state.

Feel free to delete if this is out of bounds Float, as I know technically we aren't supposed to post for sale ads outside of the for sale section, but I think times have changed and people only visit the general CA18 forum or Fac*book, and I'd rather not visit Fac*book. No worries and no harm though if you need to delete. One of the rare times I'll ever post about items for sale.

10% off for anyone that has visited this thread from the listed prices I have in the pic below. Free shipping for anyone in USA.

Greddy Profec B Type I, 10% off as well. And as a bonus, 5% off extra and free shipping for any Nicoclub member with an account older than 2020. (you will need to message me on here to prove that)

Contact me at [email protected] and I'll remove the ebay/zilvia listings if you complete payment and decide to purchase. Oh yes, any additional pictures you can reach out to me as well.

I'm gonna do something pretty cool with this money that I'll share with you guys later. Nicoclub forever!

[Izento]

I'm back!

So as a quick recap, I went on vacation, so wasn't here to work on my car. With that said, now that things have calmed down, I can get back to it. Here's some car related pictures from Philippines and Korea though!

Found this Evo in the Motul flagship store in Manila

Also found a Suzuki Jimny in Banawe street.

Here's the Motul flagship storefront. They let us tour the facility. There were R35s, a Mclaren and two EVOs.

Here's a pic of a side street in Korea. Notice how crazy small they are! Also, all the cars there were Korean. Hardly any JDM cars. One Korean explained it to me and said that Korea still has a grudge from the war.

Anyways, so picking up where I left off. My coilovers were seized. I have tried almost everything.

I decided to try something from Youtube which was to wrap electrical tape around the strut tube and then put hose clamps around the tape, allowing it to grab. Then hit the exposed screws on the clamps with a block of wood to try and turn the entire strut tube. No luck.

So then I thought, lets put a little heat to the bottom assembly, making sure to avoid the strut tube

...No luck. Ok, what about just soaking the entire thing in PB Blaster?

And I mean the ENTIRE LOWER HALF. 2 GAL of PB Blaster. Let it soak for 24 hours.

Got some whale vice grips to wrap around the coilover. Put some electrical tape on the threads and got to grippin the strut, put a bolt through the lower mount and try to crank it with a cheater bar.

...No luck...and damaged some threads (that I wont be using anyways since the car would never be that low). Ok, LAST RESORT. Take it to a tire shop with an air wrench and bang that s***.

Success! Got some nicks on the lower mount, but nothing to worry about. In hindsight, I should have stuck a bolt on there and had them hit the bolt instead so that it would take the impact and turn the assembly with the momentum. Not sure if that would have worked, but would have been worth a try first. So then I started to apply the precious anti-seize.

Raise it up. I started measuring from the top hat to the top of the lower mount, but then decided it's not the smartest idea given the top hat is too flexible and you cant really tell if it's holding a consistent flat angle. So then I started measuring from the bottom of the entire strut.

So I've lengthened the coilovers about an 1 1/2 inch. That should be enough while still maintaining a really low center of gravity. Word of the wise, if you're early in your car journey, please disassemble your coilovers and put anti-seize on them. It will save you a lot of heartache. I hate 19 year old me for this. More to come soon.

[VStar650CL]

I hate 19 year old me for this.

We all did s#it at 19 that we hate ourselves for. Heck, I was still doing s#it at 45 that I hate myself for. If I live to be 90, I'm probably doing stupid s#it right now that I'll hate myself for.

My dad used to say, "Nature gave us pain so we won't repeat the stupid s#it we did yesterday." Boy, was he right!

[float_6969]

Past Ryan definitely used to hate future Ryan. I know, because that guy did A TON of dumb s*** to make my life a PITA.

[Izento]

So I got around to putting the coilovers back in. The car was actually nominally higher than previously. I guess I didn't raise it as much as I thought. Ended up dropping and raising the car about 4 times before I got the height set properly. As a side note, adjusting the height with that anti-seize on was like butter. Made everything turnable by hand.

So overall about a two finger gap for the wheels. 5 finger gap at the front lip, which is actually pretty properly high. Now I wont scrape on leaves anymore I can do a full u-turn on a normal sized road without doing a three-point turn.

Alignment is scheduled at Evasive. Will have more news when that happens. In the mean time, I'll try to get my fire extinguisher mounted.

[float_6969]

Welcome back to the world of cars you can drive on the street!

[Izento]

So I got my hooptie over to Evasive.

As suspected, my toe was waaaay out of wack. -9/32 on right, -11/32 on left. They brought it back into spec. Caster was also off a fair bit with 5.63 on right, and 7.04 on left. Camber was about the only thing kind of close, with -4.15 on right and -4.72 on left. So now she's as follows:

Front
-5 camber
6.85 caster
slight toe in

Rear
-3 camber
toe is still a bit wack on the rear

They told me that they couldn't adjust my toe due to seized bolts. So whenever I get around to it I'll just buy some new adjustable toe rods and put those on.

Bonus content!

I replaced the headliner in my 200sx. I went to the junkyard and found some good headliner, along with some other misc bits I've been neglecting.

She was f*** terrible and embarrassing for the interior.

Good as new!

The car drives pretty straight and can you believe this is my first alignment EVER?? Lol. Anyways, I'll get around to that fire ext and remounting my catch can with the rivnut gun. Also still need to work on my daily driver a little. Then coming up in a couple of weeks will be the tune!!! More to come.

[float_6969]

Nice!

[Izento]

Small update. I picked up some Motul 300v 10w40 a while back. I didn't think much of it until I did the oil change. The oil is green! It almost looks like antifreeze. I thought about it some more and knew this was bike oil, and on second consideration, because bikes have a wet clutch for the transmission that is in the same sump as the engine, they have to have some kind of friction modifier in there. So then I looked to see if Motul sells a car version. Turns out they do.

This is the bike oil 10w40

I also picked up an HKS intake

The 300v 15w50 is not nearly as green, it has a very slight green tinge, but looks like normal motor oil. Now my oil pressure is at 90 cold start and goes down to about 35 psi once it's fully warmed up.

I had to get this intake since my K&N won't fit the new MAF housing, and I'm too lazy to get a rubber reduction ring, so it's a good excuse to get the intake I've always wanted. And it matches my color theme of green.

Btw, for some reason these HKS intakes aren't legal to sell in CA, so getting this was a pain. For all the praise California gets as the tuner capital of the US, it's terrible to live in for tuners. Don't come here, seriously. Anyways, couldn't get my hands on the 200mm version, so I settled for the 150mm. Shouldn't make a difference considering both are much larger than the turbo inlet. Looks quite sexy though.

P.S. Tune is scheduled for this week. Will have dyno results for everyone soon!

[float_6969]

That 15w-50 is pretty thick oil. Do you live in southern California? I'd be apprehensive to run something that thick in cooler temps.

The HKS filter is classic! I love it! They don't filter very well, but they keep the big s*** out and are so free-flowing, you'll be fine with the 150mm.